… To the surprise and disappointment of many inside the party, including many of his own MPs, Mr. O’Toole did a complete 180 on a carbon tax, saying he would bring one in as prime minister. This would be the same carbon tax that Conservatives had spent the past few years vehemently fighting against. The same carbon tax that Conservative MPs such as Michelle Rempel Garner called a job killer and bourgeois public policy.
But Mr. O’Toole felt that if the Conservatives were ever going to be taken seriously on climate change he had to back a public policy measure that is almost universally considered the best way of changing public behaviour.
That decision was the headliner among his many moves to present a kinder, gentler, more modern-looking Conservative Party to the country. A version that many Conservatives, especially in the West – the party’s heartland – want no part of.
Nah, he’ll stick around. The base will be forced out.
